Reply to: Nixon Williams accoutancy fees rise

[AtW]

£1200+ a year, i use to use SJD 5 years ago but stopped when they upped prices to almost that.. what are they charging these days? i see from the website its £1300+ a year now.

These firms are taking the p1ss?

Some people on here invoice £1000 a day, are they taking the piss? It's supply and demand situation, and it's entirely normal that services are going up every year with the rate of inflation.

Good accountant gives peace of mind - if a few hundred quid a year is the determining factor then one should focus more on earning money.

[Iron Condor]

£1200+ a year, i use to use SJD 5 years ago but stopped when they upped prices to almost that.. what are they charging these days? i see from the website its £1300+ a year now.

These firms are taking the p1ss?

I now use a work from home chartered accountant, he charges me £400 a year for the annual accounts, i do the vat returns and self assement myself, they only take a few minutes to do.

Thats £8,000+ i save every ten years

[Waldorf]

Hi all

Sorry to raise an old thread

Please can someone confirm that NW's fee increase to £95 + VAT was effective from 1/1/2012 and affected all existing clients on the renewal of their annual arrangement.

Thanks

Rhino

I have an ongoing arrangement with them so I don't renew as such, when the fee was increased, there was a delay for older, existing clients, so mine went up this month. Still good value, and very happy with the service.

If you have a problem, why not just give them a call?

[AtW]

Still find it hard to believe contractors earning in excess of, what, 300 a day are whinging about a 20 quid a month increase if you are getting a good service.

Rare situation when I agree with BolshieBastard.

[Rhino]

Nixon Williams fee increase?

Hi all

Sorry to raise an old thread

Please can someone confirm that NW's fee increase to £95 + VAT was effective from 1/1/2012 and affected all existing clients on the renewal of their annual arrangement.

Thanks

Rhino

[Carp3Di3m]

I have left them because of the increase of payments and the fact that in a year I had 4 different account controllers. They are falling like flies @ NW.

The best part is that they have charged me now 540£ since April and my new accountant received nothing from them. As I asked for a refund I got the cheeky answer that I was receiving their services! They sent me 2 months of paper work and one VAT return. And now have to be great-full of being being signed up with such good company.

[BolshieBastard]

Still find it hard to believe contractors earning in excess of, what, 300 a day are whinging about a 20 quid a month increase if you are getting a good service.

I dont use NW btw, I've used the same accountancy firm for most of the last 15 years and been whacked for price rises but so what, I get excellent advice and service.

The only time I didnt use them I got shafted with the Montpelier IoM scheme

[Meera @ K&B Accountancy]

Accountancy Services

I will be leaving NW if this is true, regardless of how bad the ops maths is.

Can someone recommend an accountant that doesn't take the piss?

Hi,

Are you still looking for an accountant?

[psychocandy]

To be fair you have been with them what, 8 months or less?

Yes, and as someone who was coming back to contracting after some time away (things have changed a bit) then they've been excellent so far. Everything done perfectly so far which is what I want.

Just pointing out that it became plainly obvious that my previous accountant was crap within a few weeks.

[psychocandy]

Perhaps it is time I added my input onto this thread.

Our fee has increased to £95 + VAT which I believe is still very competitive within the market, we last increased our fee in July 2009, taking the simple inflation rate from this date would have brought the fee to £86+VAT.

Over the past couple of years we have invested heavily in our staff plus we have fewer clients per member of staff than many of our competitors who often rely on their clients to do all the work via a spreadsheet.

Part of our service is that we do check and advise our clients to help them keep out of trouble with HMRC etc, indeed we support our clients if they have an enquiry at no extra charge, we make no charge for setting up with us, or if you wish to leave us, neither do we force clients into minimum 12 month contracts.

Although we are based in Blackpool, salary levels are not greatly different to the south of England and we always pride ourselves that we pay above average salaries to ensure we attract the best people and more importantly, that we retain them to ensure a quality service.

So, to sum up, the reasons for the fee increase are, inflation and a higher level of service.

One of the unfortunate facts is that anyone can buy a website and set themselves up as ‘accountants’, there is no legal restriction but I would question how a quality service can be provided for £60 per month.

We are never going to attract clients who simply want a low cost service, which is not we aim for, we always prefer to be known as the best rather than the cheapest.

Perhaps, to our detriment, we choose to review our fees every few years and so when an increase becomes necessary the percentage increase looks large, perhaps we should follow the example of the likes of SJD and In Touch and increase the fee annually.

Alan

Alan - personally I reckon a yearly increase would be better. Look at me for instance, joined NW 9 months ago starting on £75+VAT and now its increased to £90+VAT. It is a big hike so I can understand why people think this if you dont look at the big picture. Perhaps £5 or so a year would be better.

Of course, as you can see from my replies here I'm a NW fan so will be staying without doubt (you've got Danny at NW to thank for his excellent service)

[psychocandy]

Appreciate in some instances paying less might get you a rubbish accountant but thats not always the case and just because you spend more doesn't mean your guaranteed better service. I've used both lower cost and one of the big high cost accountants and to be honest the service of the lower cost was better and was nearly £650 a year cheaper, but may be I was lucky.

Of course, just pointing out that cost shouldnt be the main factor in choosing an accountant.
Yeh, bit of a hike from NW admitedly but like I said, I get excellent service from them.

I might get a good accountant cheaper but I might not. I just cant be arsed with all the stress a poor accountant gives me for £20-£30 a month cheaper.

[d000hg]

perhaps we should follow the example of the likes of SJD and In Touch and increase the fee annually.

Can you provide data which shows that's what they do or retract the comment? I've been contracting for 4.5 years and seen exactly 2 price rises so annually doesn't quite seem accurate.

[northernladuk]

Over the past couple of years we have invested heavily in our staff plus we have fewer clients per member of staff than many of our competitors who often rely on their clients to do all the work via a spreadsheet.

Ouch! No love lost in the accounting world hey. LOL

[northernladuk]

If NW were average I'd also consider switching. However, I find their service EXCELLENT.

As someone who was with a cheaper, local accountant (PCG accredited though) its not worth paying less and getting crap service.

To be fair you have been with them what, 8 months or less?

[gingerjedi]

If they lose 26% of their clients they are still quids in with the reduced workload, they must have factored that in.

How about I keep the perfectly adequate level of service I had before and you keep the rates the same (as I've had to for the past 2 years).

What do you say Alan?